The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Tuesday announced that companies planning initial public offerings (IPOs) must have at least one woman on their board of directors to boost gender equality among listed firms.
The announcement would affect a dozen companies planning IPOs on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the Taipei Exchange (TPEX) this year, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director Sam Chang (張振山) told a news conference in Taipei.
Six out of 32 firms planning to list on the TWSE and five out of 24 looking to debut their shares on the TPEX do not have female directors, TWSE president Chien Lih-chung (簡立忠) and TPEX chief executive officer Edith Lee (李愛玲) said, adding that some firms are making contingency plans to meet the new requirement.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
The TWSE and TPEX are considering giving firms time to install female directors before the end of the year, the commission said.
Listed companies scheduled to hold board elections next year are also required to have at least one female director, Chang said.
Currently, 497 listed companies, or 28 percent of the total, do not have female directors, he said.
As 163 companies plan to hold board elections next year, they must comply with this new requirement, he said.
From 2025, listed firms that do not meet the requirement that one-third of their board must be female will have to explain why and present improvement plans, he said.
“Women joining the board has become the international trend, which is crucial to promote diversity and corporate governance,” he said.
Asia is lagging behind Europe in terms of female representation on boards, Chang said.
Taiwan would be the third nation in Asia making female board members mandatory, after Hong Kong and Malaysia, he said.
South Korea requires only companies with assets larger than 2 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) to appoint one female director, he added.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
STEEP DECLINE: Yesterday’s drop was the third-steepest in its history, the steepest being Monday’s drop in the wake of the tariff announcement on Wednesday last week Taiwanese stocks continued their heavy sell-off yesterday, as concerns over US tariffs and unwinding of leveraged bets weighed on the market. The benchmark TAIEX plunged 1,068.19 points, or 5.79 percent, to 17,391.76, notching the biggest drop among Asian peers as it hit a 15-month low. The decline came even after the government on late Tuesday authorized the NT$500 billion (US$15.2 billion) National Stabilization Fund (國安基金) to step in to buoy the market amid investors’ worries over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Yesterday’s decline was the third-steepest in its history, trailing only the declines of 2,065.87 points on Monday and
RSS